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Tom Reed,who previously covered the Blue Jackets for The Dispatch, is back after a five-year absence while working for the newspaper in that city up north: Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter at @treed1919

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Game 21: A Bitter Pill

Posted Mar 2, 2013
by Aaron Portzline

One glance at the NHL standings and you'd never guess the Blue Jackets have had the Chicago Blackhawks on the ropes this season, much less three times.

These undermanned Blue Jackets have a spirit about, enough to throw jabs and stick out a chiseled chin. But these Jackets do not have a haymaker in their repertoire, which is why the Blackhawks are owners of an NHL-record 21-game point streak (and counting) to start a season, and why the Blue Jackets are flying home tonight lamenting their third one-goal loss this season to Chicago.

The Blackhawks won 4-3 in overtime before 21,828 in United Center tonight when Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews - my, look at them go! - scored at 3:23 of the extra period to end it. Toews carried the puck and the play with speed into the zone, made a crafty pass behind him to his right that split Jackets' defensemen Nikita Nikitin and Adrian Aucoin and made it to Seabrook for a tap-in.

“Regardless of who it is, it’s still a loss,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “We still just aren’t quite good enough. We battled and we competed, which is what we should do. We found a way to get it to overtime. But we have to find ways to come out on top.”

The Blue Jackets, now 5-12-4, have lost to the Blackhawks by scores of 3-2, 1-0 and 4-3 this season. This is a Blackhawks club that has outscored the rest of the NHL 60-35 in 18 games.

Still, the Jackets accepted their point tonight with a bit of venom.

“It’s such a crappy feeling,” Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason said. “When you look at the grand scheme, coming up one goal short against these guys means were doing a lot of things right to be able to stick with them. But we’re not doing enough.”

Vinny Prospal, Artem Anisimov and Ryan Johansen scored for the Blue Jackets, who are 2-7-3 in their last 12. The Jackets have dropped nine straight games to the Blackhawks, dating back two seasons.

Prospal's goal was the 250th of his esteemed career and his club-high seventh of the season. Johansen's goal ended a personal 37-game slump. Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason finished with 31 saves.

Richards boiled the game down to a 59-second span late in the first period. When it started, the Blue Jackets had a 2-1 lead and United Center was under control. When it ended, the Jackets were down 3-2 and the Madhouse on Madison was back.

At 17:20 of the first, Patrick Sharp carried the puck into the left the circle and, with his backhand, flipped the puck at Mason, a seemingly innocent shot meant to provoke a rebound. Instead, Mason was handcuffed and the puck bounced off his blocker and into the net.

Mason said he felt like "garbage."

A minute later, Fedor Tyutin's pass across the blueline was anticipated by Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell, who chopped the puck away from Nikita Nikitin and went off to the races. When Nikitin fell down at the Blackhawks' blue line, it was a 2-on-1 with Viktor Stalberg to Bickell's right and only Tyutin to defend in front of Mason.

Bickell ripped a shot just as he was undercut by Tyutin and it beat Mason cleanly, putting the Blackhawks up 3-2 with 1:41 left in the second.

“Bad goal on Mason, and he’d be the first to admit it,” Richards said. “He played great otherwise, a great game.

“And then we make a bad play on the third goal. So we gave them two goals. They’re a great team. You can’t just give them opportunities like that. Now you’re trailing. I thought we battled hard in the third, but, again, not quite enough.”

The Blue Jackets pulled to 3-3 at 12:23 of the third period. Johansen had a very good game. He looked, at times, like a budding No. 1 center, and he was rewarded for it.

Nick Foligno advanced the puck to Johansen through two Blackhawks, and Johansed made a nifty move to make Blackhawks goaltender Ray Emery commit. Then he beat him off his backhand. Roofer.

That forced overtime, which is all Chicago needed to extend its record. It's a 21-game point streak this season and a 27-game point streak dating back into last season.

The start of the game was quite an event for Columbus.

From the moment defenseman John Moore was hurt during the morning skate (see previous post), the clock was ticking on defenseman Dalton Prout's arrival into Chicago. Prout caught a commercial flight from Hartford, Conn., to Chicago that was scheduled to arrive at 6:15. It was delayed, of course, so Prout didn't arrive until 6:40.

After getting waiting for his luggage at baggage claim -- you can't exactly carry on a big stinky hockey back -- he ran to grab a cab and endured Friday Chicago traffic. He arrived about 10 minutes into the game, then spent a few minutes stretching and warming up before reach the Jackets' bench with about seven minutes left in the period.

Richards didn't want to put him in cold, so he gave him time to ride the bike and stretch. His first shift came early in the second.

By then, it was 1-1. The Jackets took a 1-0 lead only 31 seconds into the game. Derek Dorsett's shot was kicked out by Emery like a racquetball, and Prospal feasted on it.

The Blackhawks tied it later in the first when Stalberg - aka Jackett Morder - scored off a loose puck in front of Mason, firing it between his pads. He now has 11 goals in 15 career games against the Jackets.

Side dishes:

-- Nikitin had his first NHL fighting major tonight. At 1:01 of the second period, Nikitin challenged Chicago's Daniel Carcillo after Carcillo blasted Tyutin along the boards. Carcillo put Nikitin down pretty good at the end, but Nikitin earned much respect, Richards said. "I thought it was great," Richards said. "I think that's a huge step when you have guys doing that for each other. It's part of a team and being a family and caring for each other. When somebody is taking a little bit of a liberty with one of your teammates, you stand up for them. It was great to Nikki to do that."

-- Among Czech-born players, Prospal is 11th all-time in goals, two behind Robert Reichel. By the same measure, he has 746 career points, putting him one point behind Bobby Holik for fourth on the all-time Czech list.

-- Odd stat: the Blue Jackets are 1-6-0 when scoring first.

-- What's the Blue Jackets' longest point streak? Eight, set -- believe it or not -- during the inaugural season. The Jackets went 4-0-2-2 from Jan. 15 to Feb. 6, 2001. Thanks, Kinger.

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